Let’s Work For Science With Integrity: Steve Koonin’s New Book “Unsettled”

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I analyze energy economics and related public policy issues.

It is not the global climate system that’s broken, it’s the alleged “climate consensus” that is. That in a nutshell is a central message of physicist Steve Koonin’s new book, “Unsettled: what climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters”, available in bookstores and on Kindle on May 4th. The “climate consensus” alleges that:

Humans have broken the earth’s climate. Temperatures are rising, sea level is surging, ice is disappearing, and heat waves, storms, droughts, floods, and wildfires are an ever-worsening scourge on the world. Greenhouse gas emissions are causing all of this. And unless they’re eliminated promptly by radical changes to society and its energy systems, “The Science” says Earth is doomed.

Settled Science vs. Real Science

“Settled science”, an oxymoron, is anything but settled says the author. Holman Jenkins in his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal captures the author’s contribution to the climate change literature succinctly: “Mr. Koonin argues not against current climate science but that what the media and politicians and activists say about climate science has drifted so far out of touch with the actual science as to be absurdly, demonstrably false”.

Koonin points out scientific facts supported by hard data and the peer-reviewed literature that stand against the reigning climate change narrative: humans have had no detectable impact on hurricanes over the past century; Greenland’s ice sheet isn’t shrinking any more rapidly today than it was eighty years ago; tornado frequency and severity are not trending up; the number and severity of droughts are not rising over time either; the extent of global fires has been trending significantly downward; the rate of sea-level rise has not accelerated; global crop yields are rising, not falling; the net economic impact of human-induced climate change will be minimal through at least the end of this century even if global average temperatures rise by 30 C which is double the Paris Agreement goal.
To be sure, what Koonin points out as facts and convincing scientific interpretations have been covered by other equally qualified scientists such as William Happer (Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Princeton University), Richard Lindzen (atmospheric physicist, retired Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Roger Pielke Jr. (previously Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado Boulder) and Judith Curry (American climatologist and former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology).

Steve Koonin is more than eminently qualified in climate science. He has degrees from Caltech and MIT; he is an author of over 200 academic papers; he was previously provost at Caltech and chief scientist for BP. Koonin, in short, is a brilliant physicist who worked and interacted with his colleague at Caltech, Richard Feynman, one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century. But what sets Koonin apart from other prominent climate sceptics are not his impeccable credentials. Happer and Lindzen have equally impressive CVs. But Koonin will be harder to vilify and “cancel” as other sceptics have been (here, here, and here) because he was appointed as Senate-confirmed Under Secretary for Science under the Obama administration serving from May 19, 2009, to November 18, 2011. He served under a President who famously tweeted: “Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree: Climate change is real, man-made and dangerous”. And this is precisely what Koonin’s book testifies against. It is quite wondrous how truth is told to power when one is released from the constraints of a government job.

The Height of Hubris

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An interesting article on Koonin and his book

As you can see from the link title, this is a source that would tend not to agree with Koonin's conclusions. There are more positive reviews of the book from other sources, the WSJ being notable. Feel free to post them and readers can compare the differing reviews.

I would point out here that Koonin's history shows he had a low opinion of climate science long before going to work for the Obama administration, where he was picked up by Steve Chu precisely because of his contrarian nature (a practice from which the Trump administration would have garnered much benefit). "Scientists who have spent their careers studying climate science said that Koonin’s critiques are superficial, misleading and marred by overgeneralization. The science at the core of “Unsettled” is fatally out of date, they say, and is based on the 2013 physical science report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." Koonin either ignores or trivializes as uncertain, significant research that has taken place since 2013 that finds a human fingerprint in almost every aspect of warming consequences.
 
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An interesting article on Koonin and his book

As you can see from the link title, this is a source that would tend not to agree with Koonin's conclusions. There are more positive reviews of the book from other sources, the WSJ being notable. Feel free to post them and readers can compare the differing reviews.

I would point out here that Koonin's history shows he had a low opinion of climate science long before going to work for the Obama administration, where he was picked up by Steve Chu precisely because of his contrarian nature (a practice from which the Trump administration would have garnered much benefit). "Scientists who have spent their careers studying climate science said that Koonin’s critiques are superficial, misleading and marred by overgeneralization. The science at the core of “Unsettled” is fatally out of date, they say, and is based on the 2013 physical science report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." Koonin either ignores or trivializes as uncertain, significant research that has taken place since 2013 that finds a human fingerprint in almost every aspect of warming consequences.

I can't wait till they starve you brainwashed religious freaks to death
I will add this to my collection of denier death threats.
 
An interesting article on Koonin and his book

As you can see from the link title, this is a source that would tend not to agree with Koonin's conclusions. There are more positive reviews of the book from other sources, the WSJ being notable. Feel free to post them and readers can compare the differing reviews.

I would point out here that Koonin's history shows he had a low opinion of climate science long before going to work for the Obama administration, where he was picked up by Steve Chu precisely because of his contrarian nature (a practice from which the Trump administration would have garnered much benefit). "Scientists who have spent their careers studying climate science said that Koonin’s critiques are superficial, misleading and marred by overgeneralization. The science at the core of “Unsettled” is fatally out of date, they say, and is based on the 2013 physical science report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." Koonin either ignores or trivializes as uncertain, significant research that has taken place since 2013 that finds a human fingerprint in almost every aspect of warming consequences.

I can't wait till they starve you brainwashed religious freaks to death
I will add this to my collection of denier death threats.
I don't want you to die. I just want you to freeze. :)
 
Science is never settled, is it? Would I need to read a book to know that?
 
An interesting article on Koonin and his book

As you can see from the link title, this is a source that would tend not to agree with Koonin's conclusions. There are more positive reviews of the book from other sources, the WSJ being notable. Feel free to post them and readers can compare the differing reviews.

I would point out here that Koonin's history shows he had a low opinion of climate science long before going to work for the Obama administration, where he was picked up by Steve Chu precisely because of his contrarian nature (a practice from which the Trump administration would have garnered much benefit). "Scientists who have spent their careers studying climate science said that Koonin’s critiques are superficial, misleading and marred by overgeneralization. The science at the core of “Unsettled” is fatally out of date, they say, and is based on the 2013 physical science report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." Koonin either ignores or trivializes as uncertain, significant research that has taken place since 2013 that finds a human fingerprint in almost every aspect of warming consequences.

I can't wait till they starve you brainwashed religious freaks to death
I will add this to my collection of denier death threats.
You'll be killed by progressives...and I'll laugh ..
 
That looks like another passive death threat. I will add it to the collection. I posted that almost 24 hours ago and so far you are the only to react to it. I think you are projecting how YOU would react were another conservative to take the analogous action. So, as is often the case, your post tells us more about you than your target.
 

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